Fighter pilots forced to land aircraft ‘almost completely blind'

Two fighter pilots with the United States Navy had to make an emergency landing after the temperature dropped so low in the cockpit that the aircraft’s windows and instruments were covered in ice leaving them ‘almost completely blind’.

The pilot and the weapons system officer were flying an EA-18G Growler on January 29 from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California, where the jet is based, when they received a warning that the system that controls air pressure temperature and cabin temperature was icing, Defense News reports.

The temperature in the jet, which specializes in jamming enemy electronics, then dropped to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit and a mist pumped into the cockpit covered the windows and flight instruments in a layer of ice.

An EA-18G Growler fighter jet had to make an emergency landing after the aircraft's air pressure temperature and cabin temperature system malfunctioned causing the temperature in the cockpit to drop to -30 degrees

A mist was then pumped into the jet's cockpit coating the windows and flight instruments in ice rendering the pilot and weapons systems officer nearly 'blind'

They jet had taken off from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington on January 29 when the incident occurred

The two pilots, who were left freezing and nearly ‘blind’, had to use a Garmin watch to keep track of their direction and altitude.

Air controllers instructed the two-man crew on how to turn the aircraft around and head back at Whidbey Island so they could land.

‘The aircrew was treated upon landing; one of the aircrew is already back in a flight status; the other is not yet back in a flight status but is expected to make a complete recovery,’ Naval Air Force spokesman Commander Ron Flanders told the outlet.